Reliable UK mobile networks for shoppers, including EE and Lyca after Three issues
If you've been affected by the Three downtime and are considering looking elsewhere, these two networks have branded one of the most reliable
With Three experiencing a serious outage on Wednesday, thousands of customers were left unable to make or receive calls, or send messages. The service has now been restored to "near-normal levels" according to a statement from Three, but that's still left a lot of angry customers.
If the downtime has left you thinking about switching, you might be wondering which is the most reliable mobile phone network in the UK?
According to Rootmetrics, an independent mobile analytics firm, EE is the most reliable network in the UK. The data comes from the second half of 2024, but sees EE as the best network overall, leading in Rootmetric's scoring.
That scoring assesses reliability, accessibility, speed, data, calls, text and video, with EE sitting in the top spot and Vodafone coming in second in UK-wide performance.
For those Three customers wondering how their network came out, the Rootmetrics data sees Three's scores declining slightly from the first half of 2024 in terms of overall performance, with the company in third place from the big four networks.
EE summer sale
EE is currently offering a range of summer deals, including unlimited data SIMs from £24 a month, the iPhone 16 from £43 a month or the Pixel 9 Pro from under £40 a month, both with 5GB data on a 24-month contract.
Note that in these deals there's £30 upfront and the phone payments are spread across 36 months, separate from the SIM tariff.
If those prices sound a little high, then there's another way to access EE's service through a virtual network. Lyca Mobile runs on the EE network, where you can get a 30GB data, unlimited UK calls and texts and 100 international minutes, for £9 a month on a 12-month contract.
Switching is now incredibly easy, all shoppers have to do is send the word "PAC" to 65075 and the switching process will be started. Once you receive the PAC code, you'll pass that over to your new network and that's it.
If you're planning to stick with Three, the company is undergoing transformation as the newly merged Vodafone Three network. That's going to bring together Three and Vodafone and should result in customers getting better network access.
When Vodafone Three was announced recently, the company said that millions of customers would get a 4G speed boost "within just two weeks", but it seems that instead those customers were faced with no connectivity instead.
In the longer term, Three customers will benefit from Vodafone's existing network with plans to invest £11bn in infrastructure and in the next couple of months, Three customers will be able to use Vodafone's network to boost their own connection.
Currently, it hasn't been confirmed what caused the Three network problems on 25 June.
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